MMDCCXIII 1/2

The cruelty of ages past affects us now Whoever it was who lived here lived a mean life Each door has locks designed for keys unknown Our living room was once somebody’s home Our bedroom, someone’s only room Our kitchen had a hasp upon its door. Door to a kitchen? And our lives are hasped and boundaried Because of ancient locks and madnesses Of slumlord greed and desperate privacies Which one is madness? Depends on who you are. We find we cannot stay, the both of us, in the same room Dance, like electrons, out of each other’s way. The cruelties of ages past affect us now